THB #533: Musing About Netflix

A couple of weeks ago, I started thinking about where Netflix was in the culture these days.

While I don’t accept the “they won the streaming wars” line - it was never a war and no one company can win - it is undeniable that Netflix has a dominant position in content delivery and in many ways, has become much like the classic broadcast network before the internet… a position that no one else really has right now.

In other words, they didn’t become HBO before HBO became them. Netflix is still not anything much like HBO at all. Netflix became CBS with foul language and nudity, but without sports, news, other live programming or direct competition, which is something no other delivery system had ever really become before.

In so many ways, Netflix is a singularity. It doesn’t, for most households, seem as interchangeable as other streamers. They are still pushing out a lot more filmed content than anyone else. Like the proverbial sea creature being slowly boiled to death, the extra monthly home entertainment expense of Netflix has been a norm in American and many international households for so long that it feels like a given… a habit.

But in the 5th year of the other major streamers, as they each catch up in various ways, that is less true than it was. And time should, as time’s nature commands, continue to change that overall dynamic. Netflix will have to compete more.

Here in Los Angeles, we have been inundated with The Netflix Is A Joke Festival, which started on May 1 and ends on Sunday, May 12. It’s hard to judge how aware Netflix subscribers in other cities are aware of this happening.

One of the realities of this festival is that there are literally hundreds - nearly 300 - comics who will perform under this banner in the 2 weeks of the festival. Very impressive. But I started hearing a few weeks ago that many of the comics felt like they were completely lost in the massive pot of sauce and were trying to figure out how to promote their events because Netflix, basically, was not doing anything to promote them unless they were big venue, billboard type talent.

Now you boo?

I was also struck by the idea of a Tom Brady roast… which seemed just so unnecessary. What is there to roast about the most boring superstar football player of all time? His wife left him and she is now having sex with other men. Wooo!!! And indeed, that became the only real thing that the roasters really could say about him. Some suggested he was gay… which seemed childish.